Kansans who were denied pardons by Gov. Sam Brownback in 2011 ranged from convicted murderers to alleged traffic law violators.

Brownback denied all 39 pardon requests last year.

The Lawrence Journal-World submitted an open records request to Brownback’s office, which provided the letters from the governor’s office to pardon applicants.

The Kansas Prison Review Board, which reviews pardons before sending them to the governor, denied the open records request for the full pardon applications, citing an exemption in the Kansas Open Records Act.

The pardon requests include 10 people convicted of murder or manslaughter and a 63-year-old Wichita man who says he was wrongly convicted of a right-of-way traffic violation. Eddie Mendia operates the nonprofit Homeless Search Corp., and says he was pulled over because of his Mexican heritage.

The new casino at the Kansas Speedway may bring big money to northeast Kansas. But social services experts say they’re keeping an eye out for gambling’s less desirable consequences.

Doors opened Friday on phase one of the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway, carrying with it the promise of 1,000 jobs and an estimated economic impact of $220 million.

Greg Kindle, president of the Wyandotte Economic Development Council, told The Lawrence Journal-World that the casino symbolizes the county’s growing economic muscle.

But as in most areas where casinos open, there’s concern about the toll gambling takes on social services, particular in the treatment of gambling addiction. Treatment providers say they’re bracing for an uptick in the treatment of addicted gamblers.

A Junction City woman has taken a $55 parking ticket all the way to the Kansas Court of Appeals – and won.

Mary Somrak got the ticket for parking over the line in her parking space at a townhome complex. Somrak said she fought the ticket through three courts and almost two years because she didn’t think it was right for the city to write tickets in a private parking lot at 2 a.m. – especially when the car she parked too close to was her own second car.

The Wichita Eagle reports Somrak also fought the ticket because her neighbors got similar tickets and many of them are military dependents.

Local courts said she didn’t file her appeal notice in time, but the appeals court ruled she did.

Jackson County prosecutors say a former Kansas City drill team instructor charged with child molestation had HIV.

The Kansas City Star reports that 40-year-old Daniel Roberson was charged in December with sodomy and attempted sodomy involving two boys. On Friday a grand jury indicted him on allegations that he molested a third boy and recklessly exposed one of the first two boys to the infectious virus.

Roberson now faces six felony counts. He’s being held in the Jackson County jail on $75,000 bond.

Court records show that Roberson received treatment for HIV since at least July 2008 but didn’t tell investigators.

Online court records don’t list a lawyer for Roberson.

A Topeka group wants the public to attend an upcoming City Council meeting to protest the mayor’s suggestion that the city adopt an ordinance regulating wearing caps and hoodies in businesses with video surveillance.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Bias Busters of Kansas is asking the public to attend Tuesday’s Topeka City Council.

Mayor Bill Bunten says he’s suggesting that the city allow a retail store to ask people who come in wearing a hooded sweat shirt or ball cap to take it off their head so surveillance camera can see them. Police Chief Ron Miller also recommended a similar measure to discourage robberies.

Sonny Scroggins, of Bias Busters, says he’s urging residents to attend the meeting Tuesday as a way of voicing opposition to what Bunten is suggesting.

A bogus pawn shop operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives targeted black males during a months-long firearms sting operation that was racially motivated, a defense attorney claimed in a court filing seeking to dismiss charges against his client.

But the government in its own filing Friday denied that investigators and prosecutors were motivated by “impermissible considerations” or bad faith. Prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Monti Belot to reject the defense request for an evidentiary hearing.

The legal dustup comes in the case of Chico Davis, who faces a 20-count indictment that includes multiple charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm as well as charges of methamphetamine, marijuana and crack cocaine distribution. Davis is among at least 51 people arrested in an undercover operation at the ATF’s Bandit Trading pawn shop.

Defense attorney E. Jay Greeno asked the court to consolidate all the federal cases stemming from the sting operation wherein defense attorneys have filed similar motions to dismiss charges based on enforcement and prosecution that are selective.

At least 43 of the defendants in the pawn shop case are black, according to Greeno. Four others are white, while the racial makeup of 4 defendants is unknown.

“Without question, the selection of the items in this undercover pawn shop were chosen to entice, and pander to the young African American male community,” Greeno wrote to the court. “This pandering included the type of apparel and shoe choices, as well as a set of tire ‘rims.’”

ATF agents went next door to a primarily black barbershop and delivered a bottle of Hennessy Cognac as a “welcome-to-the-neighborhood” gift, according to the court filing.

“The racial overtones of such a gesture are not lost on the defendants or defense counsel,” Greeno wrote in his filing last week.

In a supplemental filing Friday that cited 2010 Census Bureau statistics, Greeno argued that while 31% of the population in the partial tract near the ATF pawn shop was black, about 91% of the defendants facing federal charges in the sting operation were black. The defense is challenging the ATF’s decision to choose a neighborhood with a high concentration of blacks, as well as the selection of those it then decided to charge.

In its reply, the government asked the court to find that the defendant did not meet his legal burden to demonstrate that he was singled out for investigation or prosecution while others in a similar situation of a different race were not singled out.

“Moreover, the defendant cannot prove ‘impermissible considerations’ or bad faith because this is a false allegation, unlike the criminal charges currently pending against him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Barnett wrote in her response filing.

Barnett argued that the motion should be rejected without an evidentiary hearing because the defense has no proof or good-faith basis for accusing investigators and prosecutors of a racially motivated investigation and prosecution.

She further discounted that the items offered for sale in the ATF pawn shop were chosen to entice young black males, noting that the defendant “conveniently fails to mention” that the business also sold DVD players, CDs, women’s apparel and curling irons.

“Ironically, the defendant’s accusatory arguments presume racial stereotypes unflattering to African American men,” Barnett wrote.

The government also argued that the defense’s characterization of the gift of a bottle of cognac to another business owner intentionally misstated the evidence and the gesture, which is captured on audio and video recordings.

“This encounter did not have ‘racial overtones,’” Barnett wrote. “The defendant’s allegation to the contrary is nothing more than an attempt to in

Police in Shawnee say a 61-year-old trash truck driver died when his truck rolled over him.

Gary G. Anderson, of Ottawa, died in the accident Friday.

The accident occurred when Anderson was getting ready to back his truck down a street to pick up trash. Police said he got out of the unoccupied truck and the truck rolled over him.

Tom Coffman, a spokesman for Deffenbaugh Industries, expressed sympathy for the family of Anderson, who had worked for them since April 2009.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was expected to investigate.

Kansas legislators will be cracking the books a bit harder and longer starting next week as they begin a deeper review of Gov. Sam Brownback’s sweeping education proposal.

The Republican governor’s plan calls for a departure in how school districts are funded and their source of new revenue. It also would make changes to the way technical education programs are taught and establishes a system for evaluating teachers.

The chairmen of the House and Senate education committees say while there is interest in taking action on some of the proposals, many of their colleagues are still wary of how the changes might impact individual school districts.

Brownback insists that legislators are welcome to add or subtract from his proposal.

The parents of a Kansas City baby missing since October said Friday they believe the child is alive and pleaded for her safe return.

Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin reported their 10-month-old daughter, Lisa Irwin, missing from their home Oct. 4. Police and the FBI have conducted several searches and cleared hundreds of leads in the baby’s disappearance but have not identified any suspects in the case.

“My daughter is missing … she is OK somewhere because nobody kidnaps a 10-month-old beautiful little girl to hurt her,” Bradley said in a taped interview on the “Dr. Phil” show. “She is out there somewhere, and I am desperate to find her … I just want my daughter home.”

Bradley reiterated that she was drunk the night of the baby’s disappearance and said she will “have to live with” that “even when (the baby) comes back.”

Bradley did most of the talking during the interview and cried at a few points. She also defended inconsistencies in her stories about the events surrounding the evening of the disappearance, particularly about whether the house lights were on or off when Jeremy Irwin returned home late at night.

“People don’t understand just how difficult it is to wake up and find out that someone has came into your house and taken your baby, and then you are accused of doing something to her or covering something up or whatever theories, insane theories, they come up with …,” Bradley said.

“And then I do all this media and be on TV for the purpose of hoping and praying that somebody … has seen someone with her, and it is literally impossible to remember every single detail and say it exactly the same every single time.”

Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Bradley and Irwin, also appeared on the show and said police told him Bradley did not fail a polygraph test when police asked her if she knew where the baby is. Bradley said early in the investigation that police told her she failed the polygraph.

Tips increased dramatically Friday after the show began airing, up from about seven calls since early January to about 44 in a couple hours after the show, said Det. Kevin Boehm, coordinator of Kansas City’s Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline.

“What we’re looking for is specific information about where she is or who was involved,” Boehm said.

Sgt. Stacey Graves, Kansas City police spokeswoman, said in a statement that “our one and only goal, from day one, has been to find out what happened to Lisa Irwin.”

The Kansas Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial for a former high school debate coach convicted of sexually molesting a South Korean exchange student who was living in the man’s home.

Seventy-year-old Richard Young, of Buhler, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison after being convicted in 2008 in Reno County District Court. Prosecutors said he fondled the 15-year-old student within days of the boy’s arrival to attend Buhler High School.

KWCH-TV reports the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed the conviction Friday, saying the trial judge improperly allowed evidence that Young had sexually abused his stepsons more than 30 years earlier.

District Attorney Keith Schroeder told KWCH he’ll appeal Friday’s ruling to the Kansas Supreme Court.

A county prosecutor says he expects to interview Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback about meetings he had at his official residence with state legislators.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor described Brownback as a witness in his investigation of whether the gatherings violated the state’s open meetings act.

Taylor spoke Friday after warning Brownback and state lawmakers to preserve records and electronic files that could be evidence. He said at a news conference he will release legislators from that requirement as he sorts through who went to the meetings and who did not.

Brownback has said he’ll cooperate fully, but Taylor acknowledged he had not discussed an interview with the governor’s staff.

Randy Picking ~ Salina Post

Businesses in Ellsworth are being warned to watch for counterfeit money being passed in the community.

According to the Ellsworth Kanopolis Chamber of Commerce, the bills were being passed in the last week.

Businesses are urged to contact the Ellsworth Police Department if they believe they have received a counterfeit bill.